Science & Nature SpecialNanotechnology

Once again we have the Prince of Wales to thank for alerting us to the latest apocalypse that scientists are planning to unleash upon mankind. Having attacked GM foods in the past, and after much hand-wringing over how scientists are reducing the world to a ‘laboratory of life’, the Prince has turned his attention to nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate matter at scales of a nanometre (a billionth of a metre).

As you will have read over the last few weeks, Prince Charles’s great worry is that swarms of ‘nanomachines’ will reduce everything in their path to ‘grey goo’. And if the idea sounds like a cracking storyline for a science-fiction novel, that’s because it is. This scary scenario was presented to the public by Michael Crichton in his book Prey. In fact, it is likely that Prey itself is ultimately responsible for all the current scaremongering and hysteria about nanotechnology.